THE GAZETTE
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St. John’s shuts out Bullis n
Bulldogs hit by injuries before opening game BY
DAN FELDMAN STAFF WRITER
In its season opener, the Bullis School football team had just allowed St. John’s College quarterback Will Ulmer to crash 27 yards through its defense for an early touchdown run. Bullis coach Pat Cilento wandered down his sideline and looked down. “We’re asking a freshman to tackle that guy,” Cilento said matter-of-factly into his headset. “We don’t have anybody better. That’s what going to happen.” With five starters out and a sixth lost during the game, Bullis allowed Ulmer to run for three touchdowns, ceding a running clock in the first half, in a 42-0 loss to St. John’s on Friday. “We knew it was going to take a miracle,” Cilento said. Among the injured players for Bullis was its top offensive
HOLSTON
Continued from Page B-1 an Alex Holston. His players, realizing this, have since adapted, accepting smaller, more spread out roles rather than one domineering one such as Holston’s, and things have been operating more smoothly. While there will likely never be another Holston, the question remains: Who will be the new Sherwood? The county, and state for that matter, has had a pretty cut-and-dry hierarchy with the Warriors at the helm for the past several years. “It’s kind of wide open,” Col. Zadok Magruder coach Scott Zanni said. “Last year you looked at it and said ‘Well, who’s going to beat Sherwood?’ And nobody did.” Now, McCarty can rattle off six teams who could all make runs at the county crown. Coach Becky Ronquillo at Damascus cited five. Winston Churchill coach Cindy Hillard did the same.
playmaker, junior running back Devonte Williams, who had minor surgery and expects to return next week. In the meantime, Kyven Jones moved from receiver to running back. But he too left the game early with a shoulder injury. “I tried to step up as a leader — be like a sideline coach, get people in their right places and just cheer my team on,” said Jones, who intercepted a pass on the game’s first possession. Jones ran for 24 yards on eight carries before ceding way to Brian Latham Jr., who had 17 carries for 64 yards. Bullis struggled on both lines, making it nearly impossible contain Ullmer, who ran for 107 yards and threw for 102. The quarterback is committed to the University of Maryland, College Park. “I’d like to see what we could do healthy,” Cilento said. “But my hat’s off to them. They’re a great team, great program.” Last season, Bullis earned a 26-3 win over Bishop McNa-
mara, a member of the prestigious Washington Catholic Athletic Conference that finished 3-7. St. John’s, another WCAC foe, figured to be a step up in scheduling for Bullis, and that looked especially true when St. John’s opened its season by defeating Calvert Hall, traditionally one of Baltimore’s top teams. Though Bullis was clearly stung by this non-league setback, Jones still brought up the possibility of an Interstate Athletic Conference championship. “We have a bright future,” Jones said. “Even though we lost like that, I can see our team, with our people coming back…” Longer term, Cilento said he won’t shy from scheduling more WCAC opponents, even St. John’s. “Hopefully, we can work it out where we can play them again next year,” Cilento said.
Magruder “is always in the hunt,” said McCarty, who will look to senior outside hitter Makayla Roy and junior middle hitter Kerra-Lei Tirado this season. “Poolesville is always solid, Gaithersburg should be good, Damascus will be good again, and there’s Churchill, too.” Hillard threw Walter Johnson and Thomas. S Wootton into the mix and, since Sherwood can never be counted out, no matter who it loses, nearly half the county’s public school teams seem to be in the mix for contention. “If you give [McCarty] six decent people, he would make it work,” Hillard said. “So I’m still glad I wouldn’t have to play them until the region finals.” “I think the more competition you can get in your schedule the better,” McCarty said. “You want to put your team in intense situations and I think it can build and strengthen your team throughout the season.” If the county is as competitive as the majority of the
coaches are predicting it to be, intense situations will be delivered on a nightly basis. Hillard returns four starters from her 9-6 team from last season, including 6-foot senior outside hitter Kaitlyn Hillard as well as a full healthy outside hitter in Olivia Chao. “Every position on my court I’ll have a player who plays year round,” the elder Hillard said. “I have four to five kids who I call ‘impact players.’ If one out of the four have a good day, we’re going to be on. It’s not one player and that’s the beautiful part of it.” The county may have graduated its most venerated impact player in recent memory, but that seems to only have opened the door wider for more five-set matches. “Last year was the most talented senior class I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been coaching,” Zanni said. “But they’re gone so now it’s kind of ‘What happens next?’ kind of thing.”
dfeldman@gazette.net
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